Breck

It’s poised to be an intense and emotional week in St. Paul and around the Twin Cities as the best boys hockey teams in the state hit Xcel Energy Center for one of the best state tournaments around. That, and state tournament bids get handed out for next week’s boys state basketball tournament at Target Center.

The Boys State High School Hockey Tournament starts in Class A with quarterfinals and continues Thursday with Class AA quarterfinals. Sometimes the great story lines aren’t the ones of the players who have been starters since they put on skates, but the ones who had to work every day to finally be good enough. Breck goaltender Stephen Headrick is a prime example of that.

A high school hockey player got a big scare after he suffered a neck injury during a game on Saturday. Sixteen-year-old Zack Munger plays defense for Plymouth’s Providence Academy. During their junior varsity game against Breck on Saturday, another player hit Zack cleanly, but he fell awkwardly into the boards.

Starting about three months from now, one Twin Cities conference is going to look at lot different when football and the other fall high school sports get started. Officials announced in early April that six schools will be leaving the Tri-Metro Conference and forming their own league, called the Independent Metro Athletic Conference.

It’s the coldest time of the year to be outside as we’re often stuck in subzero temperatures and painfully freezing wind chills. As cold as it is outside, things are heating up in high school gyms and hockey rinks all over the state. We are in the grind of the conference season all across Minnesota.

In Friday night’s High School Sports Rally Mike Max profiles Breck tennis ace Myles Tang, David McCoy introduces to Minnetonka basketball star Riley Dearring who is all set to wear Badger red and we take a trip to the annual Minnesota Football Coaches Association convention!

Friday night’s High School Sports Rally features the State High School Hockey semi-finals! Among the big matches are Hill-Murray versus Wayzata, Duluth East versus Edina, Breck versus Hermantown and East Grand Forks versus St. Thomas Academy.

While the best girls hockey teams are battling at Xcel Energy this week for a state championship, pairings are set for the State Wrestling Tournament, and the State Gymnastics Tournament is this weekend at the University of Minnesota.

If you like high school hockey, the Xcel Energy Center is the place to be this week. One of the great events every year in prep sports is the boys state hockey tournament. This year might be one of the best ever.